Moderate tropical storm Batsirai influencing weather over our region   |28 January 2022

Gloomy weather prevailed across Mahé yesterday (Photos: Louis Toussaint)

Many people cowered with fright in their houses on Wednesday evening, terrified by the deafening crack of thunder and the longer than usual flashes of lightning that illuminated their houses.

The drastic change in the weather condition is the result of a moderate tropical storm in our region which has been named Batsirai within the Southwest Indian Ocean basin.

“Although it is located further to the southeast, it is having an influence over Mahé and some of the islands to the south. We did issue an advisory from Tuesday as we expected the emergence of the system and that it would start influencing us from Wednesday evening. On the same evening we issued an orange alert as the system had already started to have an influence over us. We now expect this condition to maintain at least until Saturday morning. We will continue to monitor the situation closely so that we can further advise the public,” said Egbert Quatre, forecasting officer at the Seychelles Meteorological Authority.

Mr Quatre is calling on members of the public to take extra precautions against the strong wind.

Compiled by Marie-Anne Lepathy